Arsenal Main Utility Menu

Gigya account

Wenger-Thetimingoftransferbusiness

Arsene Wenger says that doing the “right” business is more important than making signings early in the transfer window.

Manchester United made the first move in the market on Thursday by announcing a deal for Holland international Memphis Depay.

While Wenger is expected to add to his squad this summer, he will not rush to make any quick deals unless they are right for the club.

"You have to take the opportunities when they come up but that’s not only decided by your desire, sometimes it’s created by the club that sells the player as well"

Arsene Wenger

“What you want to do more than do it early is to do it right, put it right and make the right decisions,” he said. “Sometimes the opportunity comes up early. Last year we signed Alexis in the middle of the transfer window.

“You have to take the opportunities when they come up but that’s not only decided by your desire, sometimes it’s created by the club that sells the player as well.

“Alexis was available because they [Liverpool] bought Luis Suarez. They could only buy Suarez at the beginning of July, so you have to always be on alert and do the business, fix your target and do it as well as possible. You’re not the only one who can decide that.

“I don’t believe [there will be a lot of business in England] because the number of players who can strengthen the Premier League clubs is not massively important a number.

“It’s not like you go out there and you can just pick players and buy today. To strengthen a Premier League team you need top quality and that’s not easy.”

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says he needs up to five signings this summer, but Wenger is not planning such drastic business.

“You want me to beat him?! I don’t think it’s the numbers we need,” the Arsenal manager said. “We have a squad of top quality and if we can strengthen our squad then of course we’ll do it.

“Let’s finish the season well, focus on doing well together until the end and then see who can reinforce our squad.”

ADVERT

Copyright 2019 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.